test(cli): check a project both engines have work in, and fix what it found

packages/cli/src/filesystem/migrations/0001-init.ts

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Rules are partitioned by the engine that runs them. Each engine directory holds
 that tool's own native config, its \`rules/\`, and its \`rule-tests/\`:
 
 - \`sg/\` - ast-grep: \`sgconfig.yml\`, generated rules (managed by Taskless), and their pass/fail test cases
-- \`vale/\` - Vale prose rules: \`.vale.ini\`. Scaffolded and inert; nothing runs it yet
+- \`vale/\` - Vale prose rules: \`.vale.ini\`, \`rules/\`, and their pass/fail fixtures. Run by \`check\` alongside ast-grep
 - \`runtime/\` - Rules that execute a \`check.ts\`, each in its own \`rules/<name>/\` directory
 `;
 

packages/cli/src/filesystem/migrations/0004-vale-engine.ts

@@ -23,10 +23,19 @@ import { CLIError } from "../../util/cli-error";
 const SG_CONFIG_CONTENT = `ruleDirs:\n  - rules\ntestConfigs:\n  - testDir: rule-tests\n`;
 
 /**
- * Minimal, inert `.vale.ini`. Nothing executes Vale yet; this exists so the
- * engine directory has its native config in the canonical place from day one.
+ * The scaffolded `.vale.ini`.
+ *
+ * `StylesPath` is the engine directory, NOT `rules/`. Vale treats StylesPath as
+ * a directory *of styles*, so a rule at `vale/rules/no-simply.yml` is the
+ * `no-simply` rule of the `rules` style, and its check is `rules.no-simply` —
+ * which is the name `stripRulesPrefix` in `vale/map.ts` exists to undo, and the
+ * shape `verify.ts` generates. Pointing StylesPath at `rules/` instead makes
+ * that same file a style directory with no rules in it: every check resolves to
+ * nothing, Vale reports `{}`, and a prose check passes clean with every rule
+ * silently disabled. Measured against the real binary, which is the only way
+ * this is visible — the layout is identical either way.
  */
-const VALE_CONFIG_CONTENT = `StylesPath = rules\nMinAlertLevel = suggestion\n\n[*]\n`;
+const VALE_CONFIG_CONTENT = `StylesPath = .\nMinAlertLevel = suggestion\n\n[*]\n`;
 
 /** Directories that must exist after the migration, tracked when empty. */
 const SCAFFOLD_DIRECTORIES = [
@@ -247,7 +256,10 @@ async function ensureTrackedDirectory(path: string): Promise<void> {
  *
  * `rules/`, `rule-tests/`, and `sgconfig.yml` move under `sg/`; the runtime
  * tier moves to `runtime/rules/` and `runtime/rule-tests/`; `vale/` is
- * scaffolded with its native config but stays inert (no engine reads it yet).
+ * scaffolded with its native config, which `check` reads and runs alongside
+ * ast-grep. The scaffold enables no rules, so it is quiet until a user adds
+ * one — quiet, not inert, and the difference is why `VALE_CONFIG_CONTENT`
+ * above has to be a config Vale can actually resolve rules under.
  *
  * The move edits no file contents. `sgconfig.yml`'s `ruleDirs: [rules]` is
  * relative to the config file, so it stays valid after the move with no path

packages/cli/src/rules/dispatch.ts

@@ -58,7 +58,20 @@ export interface EngineOutcome {
 
 export interface DispatchOptions {
   cwd: string;
-  /** Target paths, already filtered to those that exist. */
+  /**
+   * Target paths, already filtered to those that exist.
+   *
+   * **Empty means "the whole project", and each engine is responsible for
+   * expressing that in its own terms.** The engines do not agree on what an
+   * empty target list means natively: ast-grep takes its targets from the
+   * config and is content with none, while Vale given no input prints its usage
+   * text and exits 0. Passing the empty list straight through therefore ran
+   * ast-grep correctly and reduced Vale to a parse failure on every whole-
+   * project check — findings silently absent, engine reported as broken.
+   *
+   * A new engine must decide what empty means for its own executor rather than
+   * assuming the caller narrowed it.
+   */
   paths: string[];
   /**
    * One `--config` path per ast-grep rule source, already resolved. The source
@@ -221,4 +234,3 @@ export async function runEngines(
         : 0,
   };
 }
-

packages/cli/src/rules/vale/run.ts

@@ -8,8 +8,11 @@ import { buildPath } from "../scan";
 import { findValeBinary, valeUnavailableMessage } from "./binary";
 import { asValeConfigError, toValeCheckResults, type ValeOutput } from "./map";
 
+/** Taskless's own directory, as a project-relative path. */
+const TASKLESS_DIRECTORY = ".taskless";
+
 /** The committed Vale config, relative to the project root. */
-export const COMMITTED_VALE_CONFIG = `.taskless/${ENGINE_LAYOUTS.vale.configFile}`;
+export const COMMITTED_VALE_CONFIG = `${TASKLESS_DIRECTORY}/${ENGINE_LAYOUTS.vale.configFile}`;
 
 /**
  * How long a single Vale invocation may run before it is killed.
@@ -96,14 +99,39 @@ export async function runVale(
   const paths = options.paths ?? [];
   const timeoutMs = options.timeoutMs ?? VALE_TIMEOUT_MS;
 
+  // Vale needs somewhere to look. Given no input it prints its usage text and
+  // exits 0, which reaches the mapper as "not JSON" and reports the engine as
+  // failed on every run — so a whole-project `check`, which passes no paths at
+  // all, produced zero Vale findings and one spurious failure. ast-grep is the
+  // reason this is easy to miss: it takes its targets from the config and is
+  // content with none, so the two engines disagree about what "no paths" means.
+  // `cwd` is the project root, so `.` is the whole project.
+  const wholeProject = paths.length === 0;
+  const targets = wholeProject ? ["."] : paths;
+
+  // Walking the whole project reaches `.taskless/` too, and Vale has no reason
+  // to know that directory is ours: with a rule enabled it reports findings in
+  // the committed `.vale.ini` and in the user's own rule definitions — prose
+  // complaints about the machinery, pointing at files nobody wrote as prose.
+  // Section globs do not help, since `.taskless/README.md` matches `[*.md]` as
+  // readily as any document. `--glob` filters which files are walked without
+  // touching which rules apply to them, so a user's scoping still decides that.
+  //
+  // Applied ONLY when we chose `.` ourselves. An explicit path is a request,
+  // and silently declining to check a file someone named would be worse than
+  // checking one they did not.
+  const exclude = wholeProject ? [`--glob=!${TASKLESS_DIRECTORY}/**`] : [];
+
   // `--` separates flags from positional paths, so a path beginning with `-`
   // is not read as a flag.
   const argv = [
     "--config",
     configPath,
     "--output=JSON",
     "--no-exit",
-    ...(paths.length > 0 ? ["--", ...paths] : []),
+    ...exclude,
+    "--",
+    ...targets,
   ];
 
   return new Promise<ValeRunOutcome>((resolve) => {

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/.taskless/sg/rules/no-console-warn.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+id: no-console-warn
+language: javascript
+severity: warning
+rule:
+  pattern: console.warn($$$)
+message: Prefer a structured logger over console.warn()

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/.taskless/sg/rules/no-eval.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+id: no-eval
+language: javascript
+severity: error
+rule:
+  pattern: eval($$$)
+message: Avoid using eval()
+note: eval() is unsafe. Use alternatives like Function() or JSON.parse().

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/.taskless/sg/sgconfig.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+ruleDirs:
+  - rules
+testConfigs:
+  - testDir: rule-tests

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/.taskless/taskless.json

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  "version": 4
+}

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/.taskless/vale/.vale.ini

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+StylesPath = .
+MinAlertLevel = suggestion
+
+[*.md]
+BasedOnStyles =
+rules.no-simply = YES
+rules.no-obviously = YES

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/.taskless/vale/rules/no-obviously.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+extends: existence
+message: "Avoid 'obviously' — it tells the reader they should already know"
+level: error
+tokens:
+  - obviously

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/.taskless/vale/rules/no-simply.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+extends: existence
+message: "Avoid 'simply' — it hides the work from the reader"
+level: warning
+tokens:
+  - simply

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Sample
+
+This document obviously trips one rule, and simply trips another.
+
+Nothing else here is objectionable.

packages/cli/test/fixtures/mixed-engines-project/sample.js

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+// Trips the sg engine: one error-severity rule and one warning-severity rule.
+const result = eval("2 + 2");
+console.warn("this is a warning");
+console.log("this is fine");